


Obvious

by IDoNotBiteMyThumbAtYou



Category: Incredibles (Pixar Movies)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 09:02:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17138891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IDoNotBiteMyThumbAtYou/pseuds/IDoNotBiteMyThumbAtYou
Summary: This is the first time Violet's seen Karen since she broke up with Tony. She has a plan.Just a nice soft story about two teenage girls being cute.A Yule gift for a friend who has been not so subtly hinting that they would like me to write this.





	Obvious

 

It was odd how Karen seemed stronger and scarier when she wasn’t Voyd. Violet still wasn’t used to seeing her in her street clothes: Jeans, and boots, and slicked back hair. Sometimes she wore the leather jacket, sometimes she kept it slung over her shoulder like a shield, but no matter how she wore it, Violet fluttered to see her. Contrast with Violet’s soft sweaters and long skirts and thick armor of books clutched to her chest, and Violet had never felt so square. In her street clothes, Karen did not look like the sort of girl who would hang out with Violet. She looked like the sort of girl who smoked and beat up boys when they tried to talk to her. Of course, she did neither, but just looking like she did was usually enough to keep people away. She could hide in her clothes the way she couldn’t in her eye-catching teal super-suit.   

Violet had been confused by this extreme fluctuation of character at first but once she learned more about Karen’s history, it made sense that the version of her that made use of her powers was the version that was more vulnerable and exposed. Violet had _found_ herself in her powers, Whereas Karen had lost everything through hers, and was still trying to rebuild her life.

Violet’s malted milkshake was starting to get a little soupy.

Karen was late. Violet had a plan and now Karen was late and it was making her second guess everything.

She craned her head around to look out the shop window and saw only the usual customers. Doe-eyed high schoolers on dates, a gaggle of girls who sang along to the music and laughed loudly. These Wednesday trips to the soda shop had become a weekly thing for her and Karen, without either of them talking about it. It was a more regular standing date than she’d ever had in her three months of dating Tony Rydinger. Which should have been Violet’s first clue into her own - often inscrutable - heart.

Karen was late pretty often on these Wednesdays, but she always showed. And she could take care of herself just fine. But today, with the plan, Violet was fluttery and nervous. See, today was the first Wednesday they’d met since she’d broken up - belatedly - with Tony. And today was the day she was going to ask Karen out. Like on a date. If she had been looking at her own actions objectively, from an outside perspective, she might have blamed herself for being so quick to move on. But from inside her own muddled head it made perfect sense. She liked Karen. In a crush way. And had for awhile. And it was time to do something about it!

When Karen slid into the booth seat across from her - out of nowhere, like _she_ was the one with invisibility powers - Violet jumped. Annoying. “Hey, Violet. Sorry I’m late. The coffee shop needed -”

“I broke up with Tony.” She blurted before Karen even had the chance to settle in. “Last Thursday.” Well done Violet. Smooth.

Karen froze with one arm still in her jacket and kindly coached her expression into one of surprise. “Oh! Oh _no_. Are you alright.”

Violet waved off her badly feigned concern and said “ _Please,_ ” with an embarrassing snort. Great. Two for two, Violet. “I’m completely fine. I’ve been meaning to for awhile but I was waiting for graduation. But then he was talking about making plans for our three month anniversary and I just couldn’t wait the extra 2 weeks and I.” Violet grimaced at the unflattering memory, “did it without thinking.”

“You’ve wanted to break up with him for _awhile?_ How long is awhile?”

“Basically our first date?”

“Violet!” Karen laughed in disbelief.

“Please don’t judge me. I felt obligated to date him.”

Karen snapped to alertness, eyes narrowed. “What?” she said.

“No no! Not like that.”

“How then?” Karen seemed unconvinced. And - worryingly - ready for a fight.

Violet smiled and touched a placating hand to Karen’s shoulder “Tony is a good guy.   _Really_ . He’s not like the other popular kids. And he agreed to go out with _me_ so like. He’s definitely open minded at least.” Karen looked like she wanted to say something at that but stayed silent to let Violet finish. “It would have been nice neat little story if he was the right one for me, but he’s not.”

"Hold that thought." Karen excused herself to order and when she came back Violet expected them to start a conversation about one of their usual subjects: the unexpected weirdnesses that came with having superpowers. The supervillains who thought their secret identities were slick. That sort of thing.

But to her surprise, when Karen sat down opposite, armed with a chocolate chip cookie milkshake, she said, “Ok I’m ready for the story,” and took a drink, eyes wide and expectant.

“...Story?”

“You and Tony. You said it was a nice neat story.”

“Oh!”  In all of their Wednesdays, she and Karen had talked about everything good and interesting and vital in life, but _never_ talked about her boyfriend. Ever. “Right… Story...” She wasn’t sure how to put it. But it was embarrassing to talk about this with Karen. She was sure there was some sort of rule against talking about your ex when you’re trying to pique the interest of someone new. Violet resolved to tell the story as quickly as possible. “Ok it was like this:” She recounted the story on her fingers like counting off a bulleted list. “I have a crush on him, for ages. I work up the courage to ask him out. He stands me up and I’m all sad about it - but it’s only because he had his mind wiped! How terrible but also Yay! Then I embarrass myself in front of him, but he’s actually really cool about it. Yay! And we schedule a _second_ first date! And that was that! Hooray! I won! I fought off the bad guys and got the guy. It’s the happy ending that’s supposed to happen.”

“But?” Karen prompted.

“But, then we went on our date. I was all fluttery and nervous, you know, the way you’re supposed to feel before a date? I got to make myself all pretty -”

“Well.” Karen smiled, like Violet had just told a joke she didn’t intend to let slip by. “I mean.”

“What?”

“That’s like. Normal for you though. Isn’t it?”

“What?”

“Pretty.”

“Oh. um.” Violet flushed and gripped her now completely melted milkshake. Her instinct was to deny the accusation, but she was on a confidence journey, here, and the confidence journey was never through. Always accept a compliment if it’s polite. That’s what mom said. No matter whether you agree or not. “Thank you.” She recited, hoping that her hair was effectively covering how warm her cheeks had gotten. Karen couldn’t possibly have known how a compliment like that would affect her. “But I mean _date_ pretty. That’s different.”

“Right.”

“And then we were at the date and we were _finally_ alone together. And I was sitting across from him and I looked at him and he smiled and I thought… ‘oh _no_ .’ I had this immediate sinking feeling. I had no idea what to say to him. I couldn’t tell him anything _important_. Everything I’d built up about him in my head just crumbled, and there he was: just a really nice, normal guy. Very… pleasant. Very. Excruciatingly. Normal. He was nice to look at but - ugh I sound like an awful person.”

“You don’t sound like an awful person.”

“Ok I _feel_ like an awful person! Like. Jeeze louise we went through all that trouble! He got his _memory_ wiped for pete’s sake! And then I go on a date with him and my _immediate_ feeling is ‘eh.’ What’s wrong with me!? I knew right then that it wasn’t going to work out. But I kept dating him for three months because I felt obligated to.”

Violet picked at a piece of fuzz on her pink sweater, suddenly feeling a bit ridiculous. She couldn’t tell Karen the the real reason for her guilt. Not yet, at least. She couldn’t tell her that all this time, the more time she spent with her, the less the wanted to spend with Tony. The more she talked with Karen, the more limited her scope of conversation felt with Tony. The more at ease she felt with Karen, the more stilted and uncomfortable she felt with Tony. Until one day it flipped. And she realized that Tony was not the person she wanted to be with. Karen was. And here she was, talking about feeling “obligated” and airing all her poor decision making skills. Way to go Parr. This is definitely going to encourage her that you’re a good person to date. “I’m being weird.” Violet finally said “Sorry.”

Karen slumped and half laughed at that “Violet. I basically _cried_ when I met your mom. I set the bar for ‘weird’ so high there’s no catching up to me. I am the mount everest of weird. And Helen still had me over for dinner so… weird is not the end of the world. People will still want to invite you over for dinner.”

“That might also be because she’s such a capital ‘M’ _Mom_ that she, like, absorbs wayward children.”

Karen pressed her hands to the table in front of her and said, with maybe a little too much gravity, “I am _proud_ to be an honorary Parr.”

“Even if it means she doesn’t trust you to feed yourself?” Violet said, and immediately winced. Dumb. Idiot. Stupid thing to say, Violet.

Karen had been an emancipated minor since she was 15. And though she was _technically_ an adult now, it had been - and continued to be - rough going. She did a good job of hiding it, but it seemed reasonable to assume that maybe Karen _couldn’t_ always feed herself. She’d been so grateful to join them for dinner, and holidays. She’d taken Helen’s “leftovers” - which were twice as big as the meals themselves - without demure, but had skillfully changed the subject whenever the Parrs got too close to offering her any long-term, or financial assistance.

Violet bowed her head, and glanced up through the net of her hair. “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m. Actually proud of that too.”

“Oh! Not to say that - not that you shouldn’t be proud. I mean, you’re very impressive. No that’s not what I mean. - well you _are_ impressive but what I _mean_ is.”

Karen placed a firm, gentle hand on Violet’s wrist - saving her from herself. “It’s _ok_. For real.”

Violet’s stomach swooped at the contact

“Oh.” Violet said gently. “Right.” She was reminded afresh that she really, _really_ liked this girl, and she was floored by it all over again. She was the one person outside of her family who knew and liked all versions of her. The one person who still made her a little nervous, and it wasn’t just because of her tough guy outfits. Now was the time. She had to ask her out now.

Perhaps mistaking Violet’s words as acceptance of her reassurance, Karen gave her wrist a departing squeeze (inadvertently sending a terrifying little jolt straight to her heart) and the moment passed without Violet saying what she wanted to say. Karen picked up her milkshake like it was an elegant cocktail.

“Well, Vi. Here’s to your heartbreak. May you heal quickly. And find someone better for you.”

Violet quirked an eyebrow “I’m _not_ heartbroken. Opposite actually. I feel… lighter.”

Karen blinked, taking Violet in. She held still and silent for a beat longer than was strictly necessary and Violet felt uncomfortably observed. “Oh. Well. Then in that case I take back my well wishes.” Karen said, lowering her milkshake.

“No it’s a good toast. I’ll take the well wishes.”

Karen nodded and looked down at her milkshake, smooshing it around with her straw, and carefully examining the swirls of whipped cream and ice cream she was making as though they were careful, skillful art. “We should go out sometime.” she said suddenly, without looking up.

“We meet every Wednesday.” Violet didn’t mean to play coy, but she had to be sure.

Karen glanced up then quickly back to the safety of her beverage.“I mean other than Wednesday.”

“Like a date.” Violet said quickly, quietly, and staying perfectly still, as though stillness would prevent the carefully balanced moment from teetering and falling and breaking.

Karen looked up and smiled the sort of wide, unselfconscious smile that was as surprising and breathtaking to see as aurora borealis “Yeah like a date.” she said. Violet could see relief in that smile. And she saw then that Karen - despite the well practiced slouchy carelessness - had been very, very afraid to broach the subject with her. For all that Violet thought she had been broadcasting her interest, Karen clearly hadn’t noticed how hard she had been angling for this exact outcome. Well. That wouldn’t stand. In a smooth movement, Violet moved Karen’s milkshake to the side and leaned forward. Half a moment behind, Karen watched her milkshake move away in surprise and was just about to ask what was happening when Violet pressed a soft kiss to her cheek. She lingered there for a moment then sat back down, willing her hands to stay steady and her heart to slow back down. Karen opened her mouth as though to say something, failed, and buried her face in her folded arms.

“Are you… alright?” Violet said. Karen shook her head. “Did I break you?”

She said something, muffled and inaudible.

“What was that?” Violet said. Suddenly terrified that she’d done too much, too fast. That after all this, she’d scared her off. That maybe Karen wasn’t interested in her _like that_ and had felt - Oh god. Oh no. - _obligated_ to agree once Violet had impulsively elevated her proposed hang out to a date.

Karen lifted her head and leaned her chin on her forearms. Huge grin plastered across her face. “I said: you beat me to it.”

“Oh! So you _do_ like me!”

Karen sighed in good-natured weariness “And here I was. All this time. Thinking I was being so obvious.”

Violet reached a comforting hand to her wrist. “Not at all.” she said mock apologetically, “I thought _I_ was being obvious. But I guess… I wasn’t?”

“Nope!”

“Well!”

The two of them laughed raucously at the relief of a fearful pressure they had been almost too afraid to acknowledge. Karen placed a hand over Violet’s hand on her wrist. And as their shared laughter died down Violet laced her fingers with hers and sighed contentedly.

“So…. Friday?”


End file.
